


The Chain of Violence

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: All Torture Done By A Third Party, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Beating, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Broken Bones, Complicated Relationships, Dark, Hurt Kylo Ren, Kylo Ren Whump, M/M, Protective Poe Dameron, Torture, compassion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:01:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24100993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: When Kylo’s imprisonment post-Exegol goes wrong, Poe steps in to help.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fourteen





	The Chain of Violence

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Torture/Interrogation
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Warnings: Torture, graphic violence

His body ached. He didn’t know how many times and how hard that guard had beaten him, kicked him — Kylo knew he’d definitely had a finger or two broken; he could feel the throbbing. The guard was grinning, almost Snoke-like, at him. “Must have been a real failure to be defeated by a neophyte on Ilum. No wonder no one wants anything to do with you. You’re nothing but a worthless waste of space. A mistake. Your parents should have thrown you out the medcenter window the day you were born.”  
  
Kylo couldn’t move. The beating, the torture...that had been bad enough, but those words?   
  
_No no it’s not true my parents loved me even after what I did to them they died trying to save me..._  
  
“Nothing to say, _Crylo?”_ the guard sneered. “Pathetic. Just a mistake — probably the only mistake that General Organa made, having someone so weak and sniveling and disgusting. The man who destroyed Hosnia Prime with one blast. My _homeworld.”_  
  
“I didn’t — aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”  
  
Kylo couldn’t help but scream when the guard turned on the electricity. In that moment, he was back in Snoke’s throne room, electricity surging through his body, Snoke’s promises seeming hollow as Kylo fell to the ground.  
  
"Gotta say, Crylo,” the guard said, “I can’t bring my family back. Hux is dead. But you’ll do.”  
  
Rey didn’t know. The dyad had broken — Kylo could feel it. The guard was all but screaming at Kylo to die over and over as he shocked him, broke a finger, cut his temple...and for a moment, Kylo wished he could give the guard what he wanted.   
  
***  
  
There wasn’t a sign of anyone coming to get him when Kylo came to. Of course there wasn’t. The dyad had broken when Palpatine had died. (Had Palpatine created the dyad? Just another way that the monster wanted to meddle with Kylo and Rey’s lives) Kylo supposed that the loneliness was punishment enough — as well as the aching of his body. The dull throbbing of his head. His bleeding temple. He supposed that that was punishment enough. He could vaguely hear Poe shouting at the man who had tortured Kylo earlier. “...if you do anything else to him, I swear I’ll put you through a garbage chute!”  
  
Why Poe was standing up for him, Kylo simply didn’t understand.   
  
Assuming, naturally, that Poe didn’t just want to hurt Kylo himself.   
  
Poe approached him. Kylo was struck by how poised he seemed, how perfect. Dressed in a white shirt, a scarf, dark pants. The way he walked, seeming for all intents and purposes like General Organa’s rightful son. The son she _should_ have had, and not Kylo. Not Ben.   
  
“Ben.” Stars, Kylo hadn’t heard that name in seven years. He’d wanted to. From Rey, it just felt wrong. From his father, from Poe — it felt right. Completely and utterly.   
  
“Poe.” There was so much that Kylo wanted to say. That he was sorry. That Poe simply deserved more, deserved better than what Kylo could give him. Instead, all he could manage was, “You’re here.”  
  
“Yeah. Here.” Poe’s fingers slipped him some medical supplies between the bars of the cell. Even dabbing bacta into the cut on his temple, Kylo winced — but it did feel undeniably better. He spoke. “You...didn’t have to do this for me.”  
  
“It’s simple,” Poe said. “I’m not like you. I’m not like Hux.”  
  
Kylo nodded. Of course Poe was nothing like him. Of course Poe was better than him. Kylo had loved this beautiful, talented, borderline _perfect_ man for as long as Kylo could remember. And before Poe, he was nothing. To think that he’d told Rey she was nothing. He was projecting all along.   
  
She was everything. Poe was everything. Kylo was nothing. A footnote in the history of failure.   
  
And in a way, Poe had won in more than one sense. Because he had been _compassionate,_ and refused to be like Kylo.   
  
_I have no place in this story. I come from nothing, am nothing..._  
  
It was something that hurt to realize. The fact that he’d tried to be someone, and was no one in the end.   
  
_I’m no better than Snoke. Or Palpatine._  
  
“He didn’t hurt you too badly, did he?” Poe said.   
  
“It’s not relevant.”  
  
“It is,” Poe argued. “The Resistance doesn’t torture their prisoners...even if they’ve been tortured by one of them.” A beat. “No one deserves to be tortured.”  
  
Kylo could at least feel that Poe believed it.   
  
“I’m not happy with you,” Poe said. “But I don’t think you deserve to be tortured.”  
  
And Kylo could believe it. Of course Poe thought that. Even if he had a right to change his mind after all Kylo did...  
  
“You don’t get it, do you?” Poe said. “You don’t deserve to be tortured. Because it destroys a person. Makes them feel _less than._ And you did that to me. But I’m not doing that to you.”  
  
“I wasn’t strong enough,” Kylo said. “I wanted to be.” Even the fact that he’d argued against Poe’s torture wasn’t enough. He was still weak. Weak where Poe was strong. Hadn’t Obi-Wan once said that only the weak embrace the Dark Side? He had to be weak.  
  
“You stood against him,” Poe said. “Somehow, I knew you would.”  
  
“At the last minute.”  
  
“Still. You did good. You did the right thing in the end. I missed you...”  
  
That was something Kylo had wanted just about anyone to do.   
  
“I did too. I’m sorry. I...I’m sorry.”  
  
Kylo was patched up, in time. He looked at Poe then, really looked at him. At brown eyes that Kylo wanted to fall into, in that moment.  
  
“I’ll keep watch,” Poe said. “He’s not coming back, that guard. Promise.”  
  
Kylo could believe that.


End file.
